Trump Dumps Sidney Powell, His Raleigh Native Conspiracy Theorist Lawyer
Everything you need to know for Monday, Nov. 23: Kane’s World goes to planning + NCGA leaders’ aides go to the UNC System + DPS youngsters go back to school
Monday, Nov. 23, 2020
3 days until Thanksgiving
17 days until Hanukkah
21 days until the Electoral College votes
32 days until Christmas
38 days until this cursed year ends
58 days until this cursed presidency is over
Today’s Number: 5,034
North Carolina residents who have died of COVID, as of Sunday afternoon. The state passed 5,000 deaths on Saturday. North Carolina also reported 4,514 new cases on Sunday, another record.
ABOVE THE FOLD
—> Trump Dumps Raleigh Native Conspiracy Theorist Lawyer
On Saturday, Jim Morrill dove into the local story of lawyer Sidney Powell, a member of Donald Trump’s “elite strike team force” who born in Durham, raised in Raleigh, and until recently was peddling deep-state, election-fraud conspiracy theories on his behalf. We learned:
She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in less than two years.
She lived in Asheville, but people there don’t recall her being political.
On Thursday, she and Rudy Giuliani claimed that Trump had won in a “landslide.”
She continued: “What we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States.”
AEI scholar Norm Ornstein: “I was alternately amused and horrified by that press conference, and only horrified by her conspiracy theories and reckless accusations. What perplexes me is that bar associations have not stepped in to sanction her, Giuliani, and the others for frivolous lawsuits and reckless comments.”
On Sunday, she was abruptly dismissed from the Trump legal team.
It wasn’t the Thursday press conference that did her in. It seems to be this:
Chris Christie, one of the president’s allies, called Trump’s legal team a “national embarrassment” on Sunday: “The president has had an opportunity to access the courts, and I said to you, you know, starting at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, if you’ve got the evidence of fraud, present it. And what’s happened here is, quite frankly, the conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment.”
Trump ultimately decided Powell was too much.
—> HISTORY REPEATING: In Slate, Ben Mathis-Lilley writes that what Trump, Powell, and Giuliani have done is not without precedent:
Namely the “Redemption” period of Southern history, in which terror groups, of which the KKK has what you might call the most prominent legacy brand, set out to undo the results of the Civil War and the 14th and 15th amendments. They accomplished this by disrupting elections and killing Black citizens in order to suppress their votes and install white governors and legislators, who then passed laws that created spurious legal justifications for the maintenance of whites-only governments and elections. …
This is what Trump’s bid to “win” the election has come down to: asking white legislators to disqualify hundreds of thousands of votes on no real basis other than the race of the people who cast them. No one has agreed to take him up on it yet, and the constitutional situation it would create would be quite muddled.
Historians say the Founders never had any plan for what to do if a president refused to leave.
“No, the framers did not envisage a president refusing to step down or discuss what should be done in such a situation,” Princeton historian Sean Wilentz said. “There’s obviously nothing in the Constitution about it.”
“This is a contingency that no one would have actively contemplated until this fall,” said historian Jack Rakove, a professor emeritus at Stanford University.
“We [historians] pride ourselves in saying, ‘Don’t worry, this has happened before,’ or, ‘Worry, this has happened before,’ ” said Jeffrey A. Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. “Right now, if all your historians can say is, ‘We are in entirely uncharted waters,’ I don’t even know how the rest of that sentence ends.”
—> MEANWHILE: The president’s legal options are running out.
On Saturday, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s effort to, well, disenfranchise Pennsylvania: “The judge’s decision, which he explained in a scathing 37-page opinion, was a thorough rebuke of the president’s sole attempt to challenge the statewide result in Pennsylvania. Brann wrote that Trump’s campaign had used ‘strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations’ in its effort to throw out millions of votes.”
On Friday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to certify the county’s results, a Nevada judge rejected an activist’s request to throw out the election results and order a do-over, and Georgia certified Biden’s 12,284-vote win after a hand recount.
In Michigan, the RNC and state Republicans have asked the state canvassing board not to certify the state’s election results today. Michigan’s Democratic attorney general, however, “is exploring whether officials there risk committing crimes if they bend to President Trump’s wishes in seeking to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in their state.”
—> INFORMED DISSENT: From my column this week:
The issue isn’t that bottom-barrel lawyers are willing to humiliate themselves for Donald Trump by saying stupid things. Elect a clown, get a circus, after all.
No, the issue is that this paranoid quackery is no longer confined to the sad internet message boards and psychiatric wards where it belongs. It’s gone mainstream, elevated not just by Trump and the usual Fox News lackeys but also by ascendant propaganda networks like Newsmax and OANN, which are dueling to see who can stick their heads furthest up the president’s ass. And it’s being promoted by the Republican National Committee—the party once home to Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt that’s now completing a generation-long descent into madness.
More importantly, these incoherent ramblings also form the basis of the president’s overt ploy to subvert the election by convincing Republican legislatures to ignore their states’ voters and certify their own slates of electors.
In other words, Trump is plotting a coup. And the Republican Party endorsed it.
That this effort was both predictable and is almost certain to fail doesn’t matter. Nor does it matter if some Republicans are indulging his fantasies to placate his base. What matters is that Trump has cracked open the door to an authoritarian takeover and found millions willing to embrace it—and a craven political party too weak to get in the way.
LOCAL & STATE
—> Raleigh Planners Punt on Kane’s World
On Thursday afternoon, the planning commission again discussed—and punted on—Kane Realty’s request to rezone land for Downtown South, the 140-acre mixed-use development that would be built around a soccer stadium and entertainment complex. John Kane has purchased some of the land, but the rest depends on the rezoning.
Here’s where things get complicated.
The city wants concessions from Kane, including affordable housing, workforce development programs, and green stormwater infrastructure, not to mention the soccer stadium. The rezoning request is leverage.
Kane says that to build those “community benefits,” he wants the city to award him a tax incremental grant.
A TIG works like this: Kane recoups money through a tax break. As the property’s value rises, Kane gets some or all of the increased property taxes he pays reimbursed.
Earlier this month, the council voted 6-2 to approve a TIG policy, with newcomer Stormie Forte, who represents Southwest Raleigh, and Kane-antagonist David Cox voting no.
Kane wants the TIG agreement in place before the rezoning, which he says needs to be in place before the developers buy the rest of the land.
Kane says he needs to buy the land by January.
The city council is scheduled to vote on the rezoning in December, but things are running behind the staff’s schedule.
Planning commissioners and many activists don’t think that’s enough time to negotiate an agreement.
—> WHAT HAPPENED: On Thursday, the city introduced several revisions to the plan:
It reduced allowable building heights for the projects, from 40 stories to 20 on Wilmington and 12 to 5 on Gilbert.
It reduced the potential building area from 38 million square feet to 21.5 million square feet.
It reduced the number of residential units from 33,000 to about 17,000.
Bonner Gaylord, Kane Realty’s managing partner, says they’re trying to work with the community: “We have added a number of conditions in response to their requests to continue to discuss how Downtown South can be the absolute best for the community and how it can deliver on promises of equity when it comes to the environment and stormwater and housing and jobs.”
Advocates want an enforceable agreement in place before the city approves the project.
The next planning commission meeting is on Dec. 8.
—> Moore, Berger’s Aides Take UNC System Jobs
On Wednesday, we learned that House Speaker Tim Moore’s chief of staff, Bart Goodson, accepted a job as the UNC System’s senior vice president for governmental affairs, a gig that pays $280,000 a year. On Thursday, we learned that Senate leader Phil Berger’s chief of staff, Andrew Tripp, will soon become the UNC System’s general counsel (salary unavailable).
The General Assembly appoints the UNC Board of Governors, which hired the new system president, who hired Berger’s and Moore’s aides. And, of course, the General Assembly decides how much money the UNC System gets every year.
Rest assured, these are not examples of the revolving door, UNC says.
[System President Peter Hans] and UNC Board of Governors Chairman Randy Ramsey pushed back Thursday against a suggestion that the well-worn path between the General Assembly and Chapel Hill represents a good-ol'-boy system.
—> The North Carolina Roundup
Local PPP borrowers who received more than $2 million will face a detailed SBA questionnaire if they want to file for forgiveness.
The Pentagon informed Johnston County that it would not be the home of the Space Force.
The Durham school board approved Superintendent Pascal Mubenga’s reopening plan on a 4-3 vote, meaning elementary school kids will return for in-person instruction two days a week starting Jan. 21, while middle and high schoolers will remain remote through the end of the year.
By the end of September, the recession had effectively ended for North Carolina residents who earned more than $60,000 a year, but not for those on the low end of the spectrum.
—> Weather
Mostly sunny, high of 62.
NATION & WORLD
—> The Brief: 5 Stories to Read Today
“President Trump didn’t create the media cesspool that he’ll bequeath to a troubled nation. He just made it exponentially worse—not only with his own constant lies but with his ability to spread the ugliness. Just days ago, he tweeted out a debunked conspiracy theory that a company that makes voting machines had deleted millions of Trump votes. And though he—barring true disaster—will leave office in January, the widespread disinformation system that he fostered will live on.” (WaPo)
“On issues of war, the environment, criminal justice, trade, the economy, and more, President Trump and top administration officials are doing what they can to make changing direction more difficult. … With his encouragement, top officials are racing against the clock to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, secure oil drilling leases in Alaska, punish China, carry out executions and thwart any plans Mr. Biden might have to reestablish the Iran nuclear deal.” (NYT)
“The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency authorization for the experimental antibody treatment given to President Trump shortly after he was diagnosed with Covid-19, giving doctors another option to treat Covid-19 patients as cases across the country continue to rise. The treatment, made by the biotech company Regeneron, is a cocktail of two powerful antibodies that have shown promise in early studies at keeping the infection in check, reducing medical visits in patients who get the drug early in the course of their disease.” (NYT)
“Total coronavirus infections in the United States have topped 12 million, and cases are approaching 200,000 in a day, as health experts warn of an alarming new stage in the pandemic’s spread while Americans embark on holiday travel that could seed more outbreaks. A fall wave of the virus ushered in by colder weather is only worsening, outpacing expansions in testing and making new nationwide records routine. The country passed 11 million cases just a week ago, and daily infections are on track to double since Nov. 4, when they exceeded 100,000 for the first time.” (WaPo)
“Raw data and case studies provide support for [Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s decision to open schools for students kindergarten through eighth grade]. The latest data have failed to provide compelling evidence that in-person schooling leads to meaningful increases in infections in communities. While there have been some outbreaks in contexts without strong mitigation measures, there is no evidence suggesting spread within schools when effective mitigation measures are in place. Studies across geographies focused on examining the spread of the virus within schools have consistently found little compelling evidence that schools themselves are drivers of spread. While K-8 schools have shown the most success, high schools, too, have in fact done well with robust infection controls in place.” (WaPo)
—> Et Cetera
Georgia Senator David Purdue privately pushed for a tax break for sports team owners.
Kyle Rittenhouse posted a $2 million bond with money raised for him by right-wing activists.
Charles Koch, after creating a monster, takes no responsibility for the monster he created.
If you listened to Fiona Apple’s (incredible) record Fetch the Bolt Cutters, you might have wondered whatever happened to Shameika. Pitchfork has the story—and it’s worth a read.
Here’s video of a Florida retiree rescuing his puppy from an alligator.
Thanks for reading today—and for being part of the PRIMER fam. We’ll do a slimmed-down newsletter tomorrow, then take the rest of the week off for the holiday.